Freckled Guardian Angel
by Bri Nara
Summary: A brief glimpse of what Marco Bodt has been doing in the afterlife. AU


**Wall Titania Production**

_This was a strange muse that hit me after the 25th episode of the snk, so I figured "Sure, why not?" I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin, this was just a one-shot born of deep thinking at 3 in the morning._

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Far above the reach of any titan; beyond the sight of any human being; hanging so far above that the walls looked like mere lines in the Earth, was where the Gates were.

Everyone person who ever was eventually found themselves standing before the Gates, even if they found themselves a bit lost before finding them. Beyond the Gates were wide open fields and an ocean. No walls. No titans. No death.

How can one die when they're already dead?

Marco Bodt sat on the edge of the cloud, looking down at the world he once inhabited below. The breeze was gently ruffling his hair and the feathers of the wings he gained upon arriving. When he occasionally looked up, he could see the new arrivals incessantly walking through the Gates.

The souls of those who recently died and instantly found their way, and those who died centuries ago. Those who were part of the military and those who were civilians. Friends, comrades, family, lovers, and enemies reuniting before the Gates was a common occurrence. Often, there were those who would arrive confusedly; who had no idea that they had died nor how nor what they were even doing prior.

All of them went through the Gates and it was a very rare case that anyone had ever stepped back out. Marco was one of them.

When you sit on the edge of the cloud, Marco found, you could see everything from the world below without straining yourself. From the abandoned countries on the other side of the world to the smallest ant crawling around in Wall Sina. Though, Marco kept his sights focused on his old teammates.

On one hand, he was glad that everyone else had been able to survive the battle in Trost and that his friends were safe. On the other, he missed them. He was getting weary of just waiting at the Gates to greet his friends. To talk to them for the first time in what felt like years to him.

"Still waiting, son?"

Marco didn't need to look up to know who it was. It was an older man, the only man up there with no wings, who sometimes came out here with him. He could hear the other grunt as he sat down beside him.

"Yes, sir," Marco said with a smile.

"I'm not sure which is worse," the man said as he took a glance down. "Waiting for them to come up or watching them all scramble about." He scoffed and muttered something about 'the walls made by God'. "Either way, you have the patience of a saint."

Marco let out a chuckle. "Now, I wouldn't say _that..."_

"What are you doing out here, anyways? Judging from that outfit," he gestured to uniform that Marco still had on, "you've never been outside those walls before. Why not go inside and take a look? We have an ocean here."

Marco's smile faded. He had a thoughtful and somber look on his face. "Well... Out of all of my friends, I was the one who d-died first." Marco tried to state this in a matter-of-fact tone, but the other man could still hear a hint of despair in his voice. "I was so confused; I wasn't even sure if I was really d-dead. One minute I was in Trost and the next, I was up here.

There was nobody that I knew up here. Nobody to greet me. Nobody to tell me what happened. Nobody to tell me if everyone managed to get out of that mess alive..." Marco lowered his head as he remembered one of his final acts, helping the other soldiers get rid of the titans still in Trost. Until Marco had found out that you could still see the land of the living from the edge of the cloud, his imagination was running wild. What if the others had been killed in the aftermath of Trost like he was? What if someone had been injured or crippled?

Marco shook those terrible thoughts out of his head. "So now I'm waiting here so that I can greet my friends when they eventually come up here!" he said brightly. He pointed back to the Gates with his thumb. "There's millions of people in there, so it would be harder for them to find me. I wouldn't want them to feel how I felt if I could avoid it."

The man gave him a smile and a pat on the shoulder as he got back up. "That's a sweet thing you're doing then! Tell them I said hi!" At the look, Marco was giving him, he quickly corrected himself. "Not that they're coming _right _now, I mean eventually."

The man took one last glance at Marco over his shoulder. The boy had a warm smile on his face as he looked down below. His freckled face was gleaming in the sunlight. With his white wings half-spread behind him, Marco really did look like an angel.

A guardian angel.

The man sighed as he walked back through the Gates. "Why is it always the kids like that who arrive first?"

**Oh my freakin' god does it feel good to write so much within a week again.**

**Anyways, review, please!**


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